Treaty of Versailles. On 7 March 1936, in defiance of
that Treaty, the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland was entered by
German troops. In announcing this action to the German Reichstag, Hitler
endeavored to justify the re-entry by references to the recently
concluded alliances between France and the Soviet Union, and between
Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. He also tried to meet the hostile
reaction which he no doubt expected to follow this violation of the
Treaty by saying:

"We have no territorial claims to
make in Europe."

The Common Plan of Conspiracy and
Aggressive War

The Tribunal now turns to the consideration of the
Crimes against Peace charged in the Indictment. Count One of the
Indictment charges the defendants with conspiring or having a common
plan to commit crimes against peace. Count Two of the Indictment charges
the defendants with committing specific crimes against peace by
planning, preparing, initiating, and waging wars of aggression against a
number of other States. It will be convenient to consider the question
of the existence of a common plan and the question of aggressive war
together, and to deal later in this Judgment with the question of the
individual responsibility of the defendants.

The charges in the Indictment that the defendants planned and waged
aggressive wars are charges of the utmost gravity. War is essentially an
evil thing. Its consequences are not confined to the belligerent States
alone, but affect the whole world.

To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an
international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing
only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the
accumulated evil of the whole.

The first acts of aggression referred to in the Indictment are the
seizure of Austria and Czechoslovakia; and the first war of aggression
charged in the Indictment is the war against Poland begun on 1 September
1939.

Before examining that charge it is necessary to look more closely at
some of the events which preceded these acts of aggression. The war
against Poland did not come suddenly out of an otherwise clear sky; the
evidence has made it plain that this war of aggression, as well as the
seizure of Austria and Czechoslovakia, was premeditated and carefully
prepared, and was not undertaken until the moment was thought opportune
for it to be carried through as a definite part of the pre-ordained
scheme and plan. For the aggressive designs of the Nazi Government were
not accidents arising out of the immediate political situation in Europe
and the world; they were a deliberate and essential part of Nazi foreign
policy.